This invention relates to a yarn feed device for a knitting machine with a needle bed, with knitting implements movably mounted therein, having hooks for the reception of a yarn, with a yarn guide for side feed of the yarn at a selected yarn angle relative to the knitting implements, and with a cam actuating the knitting implements for guiding the hooks of the knitting implements receiving the yarn on a path having a raising section, a lowering section and an intervening maximum, wherein the yarn guide comprises a guide member provided with a yarn opening for inserting the yarn, and a guide channel for the yarn arranged thereafter in the yarn feed direction and being so arranged that the yarn is fed to the knitting implements from a location beside the path and preceding the maximum, and is caught by the hooks of the knitting implements guided along the lowering section, and wherein the guide channel is arranged downwardly open and at a channel angle relative to the knitting implements and is provided with an entrance section and an exit section facing the raising section.
In a known yarn feed device (DE-PS 3 324 245), a guide member consists of an eye formed from wire, which is anchored on a support stirrup of a yarn guide by a wire coil. The yarn guide has a guide channel with an arcuately curved bottom and an end section with a channel angle which amounts to about 90.degree., so that the yarn always leaves the guide channel tangentially, regardless of whether it is to be received by all knitting implements or only by knitting implements selected in accordance with the pattern. Because of the eye and the bow-shaped curvature of the guide channel, a comparatively expensive overall device results, which represents a significant cost factor in a high performance machine with a plurality of knitting systems. Moreover the yarn leaves the yarn guide at varying places on the guide channel on account of the arcuate guide channel, according to selection of the knitting implements, which is undesirable on knitting technology grounds.